Nintendo wanted us to believe that the 3DS was going to live on alongside the Switch, not get dingied like the Wii U was. #notaScot For many casual Nintendo gamers, or those looking to pick up a budget console for Little Johnny's birthday, that might be true. I couldn't say. All I know is, most of us moved on bloody fast.

In doing so, most of us passed this game by - it was released on the 3DS in June 2017, and (unlike Metroid: Samus Returns) it didn't have a big name backing it up. And that's a damn shame.

You play as a Seedling that you will inevitably name Buttface or similar, one of a species of big-headed desert-dwelling kids with the magical Power of Commerce. Chaos, which manifests as a tentacled falcon-type thing, smacks your oasis and your brother so hard that you fly out into the desert. Fortunately you're rescued by the Water Spirit Esna who helps you start another oasis, while you search for your brother and try to stomp Chaos in the meanwhile.

The plot's nothing special, although it does pave the way for some surprisingly emotional moments late-game and Esna is a sweetie. What it does do is set up the gameplay loop. You see, to continue the story, you need to level up your oasis (and then complete story missions once you've done so).

- To level up your oasis, you need new shops.- To get more shops, you need to find Seedlings in the desert - where, incidentally, your health is dependant on how well your oasis' shops are doing.- To find Seedlings in the desert, you enter mini-dungeons, complete side-quests, and bash up flora and fauna.- Bashing flora and fauna makes them drop supplies for your shop.- Returning to the oasis lets you collect tithes from the shops you have and drop off the supplies.- You can then use the tithes you've collected to pay for the creation of new shops, run by your found Seedlings. - Rinse in clean oasis water, repeat.

Yes, you're a landlord and a tax collector. Which sounds bobbins. But it's addictive and adorable.

Ever Oasis' town-building won't be for everyone, it's true; but designing your oasis-bazaar-village is oddly satisfying. Toddling around your creation every in-game day, talking to the Seedlings, re-stocking shops, and watching the sweet money pour in. Choosing where to build and where to decorate. You can expand shops once they sell enough: in doing so, you find out a bit of each shop-keeper's backstory.

You can also use your infinite charisma/the fact you own their homes to set Seedlings to grow plants for you; or, later in the game, send them out to explore the desert in your stead and pick up resources. If you've played and enjoyed the Harvest Moons, or Sim Cities, or even base-building minigames in various RPGs, I reckon you'll get the same kick out of this I did.

You're also the most adventurous advocate of the capitalist system since Judas tried to value his mate's life. There are several different deserts to explore, packed with animals that Chaos has got to first ('so it's okay to butcher them for their wool and flesh, kids') and dungeons. Big dungeons and small dungeons. Filled with well-designed enemies, puzzles, bosses, and of course the reason you're there: treasure.

The adventuring passages of the game could have come out of a Zelda title. The combat, full of rolling-to-dodge and swordplay, certainly could have. Meanwhile your adventuring companions have special abilities (your Seedling has a tornado attack, other Seedlings can turn into pinballs (yes really), the lizard-folk have long switch-reaching spears...) that act like Link's inventory. It's good fun, and some of the bosses may even occasionally challenge you.

And it's all really cute. If you haven't noticed from the pictures, the game has an art style that will nauseate those who luuuuurve dem photorealistic gun-battle games, and charm the pants off everyone else. The game was developed by Grezzo, them of the Zelda ports: how fitting that, out of the humble 3DS, they've pumped something that looks like a sandy Wind Waker.

I think the sound design's also pretty great, although others may and do disagree. Two tunes from the game made it into SSBU, if you want to have a listen. (I play them on the Nintendogs stage because I can't find a better place for them.) The village is populated by tubby birds with retail addiction who squawk when you interact with them; the other characters' squeaks and... er, squacks? are endearing too.

As for the game's flaws, the part I'm usually much better at describing... Going back to base every time you want to change companions is a pain, uprooting Chaos when it decides to go plantform again is a double-pain, and they could have introduced some of the oasis-management-easing mechanics a tad earlier. It's a slightly slow game in places, is what I'm saying.

But damn it, that's just fine. A slow, relaxing, Zelda-cum-capitalism-simulator that's filled to the brim with cuteness? And then almost made me cry at the end? Bugger me if that's not the sort of thing that would appeal to more people than those who actually played it.

I don't know what it's selling for these days, but Ever Oasis is one of my Top Ten 3DS Games and I'd recommend it to anyone with more patience than me (so, everyone). Did anyone else who's still here play it?

I played Ever Oasis! I got it for hee-haw in the clearance sale a while after it came out. From what I remember, I was decently impressed by the social management, Animal Crossing-ey parts of it, and the Zelda-like combat was all right too. I dropped it too soon; I think other things just got in the road - things that I enjoyed more, sadly for Ever Oasis.

Last edited by The Cappuccino Kid on Sun 17 Feb 2019 - 18:26; edited 2 times in total

It does, come to think of it! The Rune Factories is a comparison that came to mind while I was writing the post, but Moonlighter's a bit closer - but with Diablo rather than Zelda gameplay outside the shopping world?

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

played Ever Oasis! I got it for hee-haw in the clearance sale a while after it came out. From what I remember, I was decently impressed by the social management, Animal Crossing-ey parts of it, and the Zelda-like combat was all right too. I dropped it too soon; I think other things just got in the road - things that I enjoyed more, sadly for Ever Oasis.

That bolded line sounds about right. Fair enough, the Switch was having a belting period at the time. If you've still got it I'd suggest perhaps getting it out again: while it was swamped by great Switch software in 2017, I'd say that only Smash and Celeste were head and shoulders above it for me in 2018.

I actually played a fair few 3DS titles in the summer of 2017 as that felt like the last decent release calendar for the console. Ever Oasis was one that unfortunately passed me by, but it does sound up my alley. It sounds similar enough to Dark Cloud, of which I'm a big fan, but with a cuter aesthetic and likely more involved dungeon crawling.

It's going for £20 out of CEX - bit of a big asking price for someone who's not exactly wanting for games to play, but much like every write-up in this thread thus far, you've got me tempted Balla!

Ever Oasis is a fantastic game and one of the 3DS' best. There are comparisons with Dark Cloud/Chronicle (Chronicle is another of my favourite RPGs) but they are high level similarities - the actual gameplay and what you spend your time doing is very different. The same can be said for Moonlighter, which is even more different in you being a shopkeeper rather than managing a settlement (also it's nothing like Diablo It's like a melee focused Binding of Isaac if anything).

Ever Oasis is a top-down Zelda-lite dungeon adventuring and 2D "street" planning where the focus is on earning more and more money. Anyone interested should dive in!

I never finished the post-game, and I assume Balla didn't even given it was all about repeating procedurally generated dungeons!

Funnily enough I haven't played Moonlighter so I wouldn't know. But the rest of that is bang on! You've done a better job of selling the game in your first two paragraphs than I did in my entire 'articlet'.

I didn't play the postgame, no - but is it that whole 'trials' thing? I played a couple and actually found them quite fun. I don't mind PGC so much if it's an add-on to a designer-generated game. See also: F-Zero X's X Cup, a thing of wonder that I never unlocked.

I didn't play the postgame, no - but is it that whole 'trials' thing? I played a couple and actually found them quite fun. I don't mind PGC so much if it's an add-on to a designer-generated game. See also: F-Zero X's X Cup, a thing of wonder that I never unlocked.

Yep the labyrinths, I played a fair amount but you seriously have to grind through them for materials and if you want to beat all the secret bosses (although still not as bad as the grind to fully level every shop, which I didn't even attempt!)

I don't think people should let the postgame affect their choice of whether to play the game or not though, as it really is an afterthought

Sorry I didn't have much to say about EO. You actually make it sound like something I'd have really enjoyed, but I'll not be putting that kind of time into anything that isn't Pokemon on my 3DS any more. For starters, the buttons are getting pretty stiff!

Right. Let's rock and roll. Please ignore my hairy knee in all of the screenshots and videos I took.

The humble Mii. You've probably wasted hours playing about in the Mii Maker tool on Wii making daft celebrity Miis or making your pals look even more hideous than they probably are. Nintendo have implemented Miis into many of their big releases - they turned up as playable characters in Smash and Mario Kart and were essentially the heroes of a plethora of different titles back on Wii and Wii U such as Wii Sports, Wii Music and so on. With such a varied list of genres, a life sim made perfect sense for the next enterprise for the Miis. Of course, Nintendo would pull it off as only they can.

2014 brought along Tomodachi Life, a follow-up to 2009's Japan-only Tomodachi Collection which you're almost definitely lying to me if you've said you've played it. The premise sounds simple - you're basically God surveying his paradise, which is a pokey little island which seems ill-suited for habitation, and it's up to you to fill up an apartment building of all your favourite characters. In Mii form, natch. Your first Mii is meant to be your "lookalike", so it makes sense to pick your own personal Mii for that role, but to make the game truly come to life it's recommended that you chuck in celebrities, fictional characters and maybe one or two real life mates if you fancy it. It's really easy to do this on 3DS considering you can scan QR codes readily available online to get Miis imported into your game, which is a life-saver if you're as terrible at making Miis as I am. You see, the fun in Tomodachi Life comes from seeing how your Miis interact with one other. Who'll fall in love? Who'll have a big fall out? Who'll be best mates and perform slamming duets at the concert hall? Er... more on that later.

Yes, my Mii is a moody shit. He takes after me, of course.

If you're getting reminded of The Sims, then I'd urge you to think differently. This is absolutely a game where your enjoyment does come from how much you're willing to make your own fun, but unlike The Sims, Tomodachi Life is as involved in providing you the tools to create funny situations as it is in making your Miis interact in the weirdest ways. The core gameplay loop (if there even is one in the game) is to make sure your islanders are happy. They'll constantly be coming to you for a moan and a gripe about something or another and it's up to you as the island's deity - it's not quite clear if you are a god, but that's my head-canon at least - to fix their problems. Sometimes it can just be something simple like popping to the shop to buy Solid Snake a sausage roll as he's a bit peckish, or buying Reggie a new hat, or changing the look of Tingle's room as he's sick of the plain decor. These simple tasks aren't exactly engaging, but they do serve a purpose in providing you more cash to buy items - even God's gotta pay up - and forming the basis of each Mii's likes and dislikes. The real meat in this stew comes from when the Miis want to get to know each other.

Reggie with one of his many hats.

Your Miis aren't just confined to their own rooms, you see. They'll roam the island and visit other people in the apartment building and over time, they'll grow to like or dislike the other islanders. After a while, you'll need to intervene as none of the Miis can form meaningful relationships without your say-so, apparently. If Stephen Fry wants to be pals with Bad News Barrett, then it's up to you to prod him in the right direction and suggest what he should say. Maybe Lucina has had a falling out with Lucas and needs your help to defuse the situation. However, the best moments come along when love is in the air. The Mii tells you who they fancy and you've got to plan out their great confession. It just so happened that when I booted up the game to capture some footage and screenshots for this write-up that Samus Aran had fallen in love. Hopefully that clip will give you an idea of how the game works, in a way. A successful declaration of love can lead to marriage and even childbirth after a while, which can be incredibly weird depending on who pairs up with who. Daniel Bryan is married to Hermione Granger on my island, incidentally. These moments are some of the game's funniest and most bizarre, especially considering there's a chance for other Miis to interrupt these declarations of love with their own, as outlined in this video from Vinesauce.

As you may have seen in that video if you watched it, there's more to the game than just playing servant to the needs of your islanders. As you make your Miis happy and invite more and more Miis to the madhouse, new buildings and services open up to create even more opportunities for silly moments. These can be functional additions to your island, like new shops filled with even more hats for Reggie. It's the zanier buildings that are the highlights though. For example, there's a polling booth where you can ask your Miis burning questions, such as "Whose body is truly ready?" to which Shrek will probably end up raising his hand and hopping up and down enthusiastically. There's a compatibility booth in which you can see where love is likely to bloom. But it's the concert hall that's the absolute stand-out and genuinely fuelled a couple of hours of the stupidest moments I experienced with the game.

Tingle, right at home.

The concert hall allows you to rewrite a handful of premade tracks with your own lyrics. It's a simple enough premise, but there's a joy in trying to circumvent the swear filter to make Iron Sheik's ballads truly reflect his spirit or groaning at how the game applies your lyrics to the track with no consideration for how good it'll sound. This is a part of the game where your mileage will truly vary depending on how arsed you can be to pen some masterful and memorable tracks and I suppose it also depends on how much you'll laugh at your own shite jokes being brought to life by the game, but I personally found this to be a good laugh. It's difficult to explain, so I spent some time recording and uploading some of my Mii's songs from the game, but I do warn you that they are really stupid. Like, incredibly fucking stupid. You have been warned.

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Lucina, clearly shy for some reason or another

If you haven't gathered it already, a huge part of the appeal of this game is how weird it can be. You can take a peek at a Mii's dreams, which can conjure up some terrifyingly odd imagery like your islanders circling a Virtual Boy yelling "ALL HAIL THE VIRTUAL BOY" or it can suddenly turn on the 3DS camera and highlight your Mii quivering in fear as it has a nightmare about some ugly fucker peeking through a window at it. Periodic news reports punctuate the action by telling you about how there's been an island poll to outlaw yogurt or some such nonsense. Your attention might suddenly by drawn to the town plaza where Shrek and Reggie are throwing down in the best rap battle of all time. I don't want to say anymore because if any of you are convinced to pick up a copy or even check out the demo, I'd be ruining the main draw by divulging information about these scenes and events. It's ultimately a very silly game, so if you're looking for something serious and gripping then you clearly need to look elsewhere.

I genuinely don't remember inviting a Goron in to the island. I'd clearly run out of ideas.

I'll be frank - unlike the other three titles highlighted in this thread so far, this is a game where you need to be prepared to make some of the fun yourself. It's all about getting into the island storylines, observing the developing relationships between your Miis and losing yourself in the madness of Tomodachi Life. After a while, the magic will fade as you get the same events repeating over and over again and where your Miis stop making you laugh every time you boot up the game. For me, that didn't come until the 40 hour mark, which is staggeringly good value for what amounts to "watch Miis do funny things". I cannot stress this enough though - your mileage will absolutely vary depending on your taste for games like this. There's a pretty generous demo on the 3DS eShop that I recommend downloading and trying out if you're interested.

Just don't blame if you end up penning something as fucking dumb as that Reggie and Shrek song I made.

Now this is a bloody game. I might even have brought this one up in a more traditional 3DS Top Ten. In the Reggie thread, Balla was mentioning the Nintendo humour being somewhat separate from the games sometimes, but this was an excellent blend of the two. Just a mechanism for bringing out hilarious moments.